Letters: With no competition, Muni lacks motivation

Tools

➤"World's fair brought Muni to life and connected S.F.," The City, March 4

With no competition, Muni lacks motivation

I was delighted to read the cover story of how the public-transportation system resulted from the greedy railroad system as the 1915 exhibition approached. At that time, of course, I was not even a twinkle in my father's eye.

However, today I am familiar with the present Muni system and its high cost to the taxpayers of San Francisco and publicized slow and crowded service. Usually free enterprise and competition can bring costs of service down. However, the only competition to Muni is taxis, Uber and other similar services.

Frank Norton

San Francisco

➤ "Rude welcome for new trustee," The City, Feb. 24

CCSF trustees did nothing

The rude welcome for Guy Lease, the new City College of San Francisco special trustee, was disappointing. As to protester chants for democracy:

n Given their lack of professional oversight, the prior democratically elected board of trustees in large part was a major cause of CCSF's potential loss of accreditation.

n Rather than the elected board of trustees and so-called democracy, CCSF would be better served with qualified, appointed trustees with financial, accounting and academic expertise.

n CCSF is fortunate to have a special trustee with the education and experience of Guy Lease.

Robert Marshall

Part-time instructor at CCSF

San Francisco

➤ "Wiener to SFMTA: Google bus pilot program should consider fair wages, working conditions," The City, March 3

Shuttles remain illegal

Hurrah for the newly unionized drivers of private luxury shuttle buses. But the pilot program remains illegal — in that it violates the California Vehicle Code 22500, which restricts use of public bus stops to common carriers (public buses and cabs) and school buses. If it's not illegal, then why did Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, introduce Assembly Bill 61, which proposes amending the vehicle code to make it legal for local transit authorities to permit select private operators to use public bus stops?

The current pilot program is akin to the most expensive and privileged university (say Harvard) moving onto the grounds of City College of San Francisco — without an expansion of CCSF facilities — for a nominal fee, while its students make six-figure salaries to study for free. Meanwhile, CCSF students would continue to pay tuition and fees for a degraded educational experience because of competition for space.

Shuttle bus pilot program administrator Carli Paine has said that demand for shuttle permits is likely to increase. That will further degrade Muni service for its paying customers, and will surely be the case if AB61 passes.

Sue Vaughan

San Francisco

➤ "Keep Dolores' freedom," The City, March 12

People need to respect park

Thanks for your article on Dolores Park. I have lived on the park for 40 years and it has imploded recently. No current people were around when it was unsafe to walk on the park side of 20th Street. It's great that people use the park now, but pissing on my front porch, mountains of trash and blocked driveways are out of line. Perhaps your article will start a social-media dialogue with those people and will make it just as cool to clean up after themselves and respect other people's property as it is to be seen and be cool using Dolores Park.